Yeah, no cheesy fluff flashbacks in this chappie. Aren't you all happy:D

So, for the most part, this sticks to game canon... only, knowing Char, we all realize she's going to fuck it up somehow XD

And yes, I realize I've slacked off on my chappie previews... sorry. T.T I'll do my best, okay? The only reason I'm posting this at all is because I finished all my homework (stupid high school).

Disclaimer- Another chapter, and I still don't own KH. Seeing a trend here? However, I do own Char and Anxclof.

Roxas stumbled out of bed, not really focused on what he was doing as he threw on his clothes. So, Sora had made a promise to Kairi, to bring that charm back to her… Roxas wondered where Kairi had gone, to make her parting words to Sora sound so bittersweet as the brunette had pointed the Keyblade at the cloud of smoky light.

He remembered how strange it had been that Anxclof had dreamed, and wondered why. What were those Nobodies she and Roxas had been discussing, anyway?

Part of Roxas wished he still had the Keyblade, because while the Struggle club worked against opponents in Twilight Town tournaments, it obviously didn't have an effect on, in Rai's words, "the white freaks in the jumpsuits" that had been showing up lately.

Come to think of it, Roxas realized, those white things were almost like the Heartless from his dream… only different, somehow.He frowned slightly with a wrinkle of his brow. Something was nagging him at the back of his mind, but he couldn't place what it was.

Suddenly he gasped and looked at his alarm clock. It read 8:25. He quickly rummaged through his mental filing cabinet and realized that the Struggle tournament started in five minutes.Hastily he shoved his arms into the appropriate sleeves on his shirt, growing impatient as the right sleeve stubbornly refused to accept his arm, and raced down to the Sandlot.

As he was running through the Back Alley, hitching a few short breaths between footfalls, Roxas heard a masculine voice say, "Hurry up; you'll be late!" As if I don't know that already, the boy thought irritably. He rushed to a clumsy halt next to Hayner, who was standing on the edge of the platform that served as the Struggle field.

"About time, man!" Hayner hissed as his spiky-haired friend leaned over with his hands on his knees, trying to get his breath back. "Where were you?"

Lifting his head slightly, Roxas smiled sheepishly. "Asleep?"

Hayner rolled his eyes and punched his friend in the shoulder. "C'mon, Roxas. How do you expect to split the prize if you don't even show up to the thing in the first place?"

Roxas shot his friend a grateful glance as he straightened and opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the man who was the main producer of this year's Struggle tournament: an overweight man with thinning black hair and mustache who was nearly always seen in a yellow vest over a green shirt.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he cried in a booming voice, "Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for summer's most sizzling clash. That's right – today is the day of our annual Struggle and title match! Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our champion Setzer?" Setzer, a man with long grayish hair and a pale purple cape, gave a casual wave to the audience as the producer spoke the Struggle champion's name.

"Seifer, y'know?" Roxas sighed mentally. Three guesses who said that.

"And who will leave today as our new Struggle champion?"

"Hayner! Roxas!" Both of the aforementioned boys turned and grinned when they saw Pence and Olette hailing them from the sidelines.

However, the duo's cheering was immediately deafened by the squealing fan-girls, who were currently screaming, "SETZER!" at the top of their lungs. Hayner rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the producer.

"Yes, the crowd is fired up," the overweight man said obviously, "so you know what's coming next: It's time to…"

"STRUGGLE!" the entire crowd shouted, and Roxas put a hand to his ear and winced at the cacophonic quality of their roar.

The mustached man stepped away and handed the microphone to a much thinner man who had pale blond hair. The blond one inclined his head in acknowledgment to his companion, then turned to the crowd with the clear-toothed grin of an announcer who knows how to work the audience. "Now, it's time to introduce today's four combatants, who fought their way up hard from the preliminaries! Regular finalist and head of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee: Seifer!" He swept his arm toward the white-coated teen, who smirked and slapped Rai a high-five.

"Completely out of nowhere – who knew he'd make it so far this year? – is Vivi!" Roxas blinked in surprise as the little black mage gave a small nod, but otherwise no other sign showed he had been listening.

"An underground favorite and local attitude problem: Hayner! And last but certainly not least, my personal favorite customer: Roxas!" The crowd applauded the four contestants, and Roxas risked a glance over at Hayner. His friend merely stared back in a "what are you looking at?" kind of way. Roxas breathed a sigh of relief; it looked like Hayner wasn't too angry about yesterday now that his temper had calmed.

"This Struggle will start soon, but first the contestants must hear the rules." Roxas sighed and chose to tune the announcer out on this part; he didn't exactly need a refresher on the Struggle rules. The two battlers currently Struggling would try to get each other's orbs, and the one who had the most came out as the victor. Fairly simple.

"Now for our first match: Roxas versus Hayner!" The former blinked out of his thoughts as the mustached producer handed them their Struggle clubs and the boys walked onto the platform.

Seeing the serious look on Hayner's face, Roxas suddenly had an impulse to shake him by the shoulders and demand what was wrong. But instead he murmured, "Look… I'm really sorry about yesterday."

Hayner shrugged. "Eh, don't be. You need to learn to let that stuff go."

Roxas raised and lowered one shoulder. "I've got a lot on my mind."

"Don't worry about it, man. Just don't hold back on this, and maybe I'll let it slide," Hayner said in a surprisingly good imitation of Seifer. Roxas chuckled.

"Let's see if even the ties of friendship can withstand the ferocity of this tournament!" the announcer said dramatically, and stepped off the platform.

It took a while, and at the beginning of the match Hayner scored quite a few hard blows, but soon Roxas managed to turn the battle in his favor by trapping his friend into the corner. The timer beeped and the announcer quickly stood beside Roxas.

"And the winner is Roxas!" the elder announced obviously. The blond boy grinned sheepishly and waved at the cheering crowd. "Not even friendship will slow this kid down. And Hayner put up a great fight too!"

Turning back to the fallen Hayner, Roxas knelt beside him. "You okay, man?"

"I can't believe I lost," his friend groaned, getting to his feet.

"Hey, I had a lot of fun fighting you," Roxas said.

The shadow of a smile flickered across Hayner's face for a moment before it was replaced by mock indignation. "Yeah, well I didn't, wise guy," he snorted, punching the other's shoulder.

There was a snarl of "Out of the way," and Roxas was pushed aside as Seifer came onto the platform, followed closely by Vivi.

"Now, this next Struggle will be between Seifer and Vivi!" The former glowered at the latter, but the black mage merely trembled slightly, as though in laughter. "Whoo, look at those sparks fly. I guess Seifer didn't expect to have to fight one of his own boys, eh?"

Seifer transferred his glare to the announcer in a mute order of silence before turning back to Vivi. "Don't mess with your elders," he growled, and leaped forward to attack.

However, Vivi whipped to the side, causing Seifer to nearly stumble with the force of his failed charge, and struck a blow to the elder's side. Seifer got to his feet quickly, but Vivi dodged every attack thrown his way.

"When did Vivi get so tough?" Hayner murmured, a look of wondrous surprise on his face.

Eventually Seifer whacked Vivi on the side of the head, causing a single blue orb to fly out. "You're mine!" the white-coated teen said triumphantly and raced toward the orb.

But before he could get to it, the black mage had gotten in front of him and lashed out, hard, with his own Struggle club. Not only did Seifer fall to the ground, yellow orbs shot out in all directions.

The announcer was evidently shocked, but tried to get back his bearings. "I… I'm not sure what just happened… But the winner is Vivi! In a positively blistering comeback!"

"That's not Vivi," Seifer muttered as he got off the platform with Fuu and Rai at his side.

"Hm?" Roxas turned to face the other teen.

"Thrash him," was all Seifer said. He walked past Roxas and left the Sandlot.

Roxas headed up to the referee/producer. "Are you ready to take on Vivi?" the elder asked, and the boy nodded.

The black mage and the blond headed onto the platform, and the overweight man handed them their Struggle clubs. "Keep it clean, fellas," he said.

"And now, for the match you've all been waiting for: Roxas versus Vivi!" the announcer blared, and his words were greeted by an uproar from the audience.

Vivi merely stared unnervingly at Roxas, and all words of good luck went completely out of the boy's head. He shivered. Seifer was right; this isn't Vivi at all…

Despite his apprehension, however, he managed to defeat the black mage in a close match: seventy-four to sixty-nine orbs. Roxas was about to land the final blow when a whoosh of air assailed him. He looked around and saw that time had frozen again; Hayner, Pence and Olette had their mouths open cheering, and the boy thought he saw one of the little kids near the back of the crowd picking their nose.

Time stopping… not again…

Vivi, to Roxas' surprise, was the only other one who had not been affected; but the blond's surprise was instantly magnified when the black mage was enveloped in a globe of light. When the light cleared, one of the mysterious white things had replaced Vivi.

"Again?" Roxas said, feeling an unpleasant mix of anger and fear as two more of the white creatures dropped down from above. He felt the Struggle club disappear from his hand and knew without even looking that the Keyblade had replaced his original weapon.

"Again…" he muttered, and got into his battle stance.

Dodging around the enemies' attacks, Roxas speedily finished off two of the enemies, and struck the other one with a combination of blows before it could react. He straightened up, panting slightly, and looked around. He groaned inwardly at seeing that time still hadn't unfrozen. But a voice cut through the eerie silence, followed by the sound of gloved hands clapping:

"Roxas. All right. Fight fight fight."

Roxas whirled to see that the speaker was wearing one of the coats like the man who had appeared two days earlier. However, he knew that this person wasn't the one who had stolen the munny: the speaker was too thin, and his voice carried a sort of teenage arrogance, not the commanding deepness of the other's.

Roxas tilted his head to the side, furrowing his brow as something nagged at the back of his mind again, just like this morning. He felt like he should know this person somewhere, and yet…

"You really don't remember?" the cloaked figure asked softly, stepping forward so he stood across from the boy. "It's me. You know…" He lifted a hand and took down his hood, revealing spiked-back crimson hair and razor-sharp green eyes. "Axel."

"Axel?" Roxas blinked at the vague familiarity of the strange name on his tongue. Where have I seen him before?

Then he realized that this man was from his dream a couple of nights before. Axel!

"Talk about blank with a capital 'B'," the redhead snorted, but Roxas could see a shadow flit across his emerald eyes. "Man, oh man, even the Dusks aren't gonna crack this one." As he spoke, to Roxas' alarm, two silver-and-red objects that resembled spiked circles – chakrams,the boy realized; he knew this thanks to the research he and Hayner had done on weapons for a school project – appeared in the gloved hands in a burst of flame.

"Wait a sec," Roxas said, taking a step away from the other; as he did so he remembered he was still holding the Keyblade in one hand, and that allayed his fears a little. …But only a little. "Tell me what's going on!"

Axel smirked. "This town is his creation, right?" he said, looking around and causing his reddish spikes to sway in the process. "So that means we don't have time for a Q & A." He swung the chakrams around on two fingers. "You're coming with me, conscious or not. Then you'll hear the story."

Roxas took a step backward, the adrenalin that accompanied the beginning of a fight starting to course through him. He could feel the air around him suddenly push against his hair and clothes in a breeze, and was confused about that, since time was supposed to be frozen. Apparently Axel realized this too, since he muttered, "Uh-oh" under his breath.

Roxas growled to himself and, feeling a sudden burst of frustration, flung the Keyblade to the side. "What's going on?" he yelled.

The Keyblade disappeared in a flash of light, and to the boy's shock appeared in his hand again.

"Number Thirteen: Roxas," Axel growled, his tone flat, as though reciting something he had heard dozens of times before. "The Keyblade's chosen one." He smirked. "And what about Number Fourteen, hm, Roxas? You hiding dear old Anxy somewhere, too?"

Roxas stared at the redhead for a moment, his temper threatening to break. In the end, he decided to let it boil, and lowered himself into his battle stance. "Okay, fine," he snarled. "You asked for it!"

"Now that's more like it," the other said, grinning almost insanely as he swung the chakrams around again.

Roxas leaped into battle, but Axel hit him with the chakrams before he could get a blow in. He dodged around the other's attacks and, trapping him in a corner of the platform, slashed with the Keyblade. But before he could deal the finishing blow, Axel enveloped himself in fire and swung his fiery chakrams out at Roxas, knocking him backward.

"What now?" the redhead taunted, circling the boy. "Am I ringing any bells yet?"

His words, as well as the smirk that might've been used on a stubborn toddler, raised Roxas' temper even more, and he ran in to slash Axel hard and finish him off.

"Not bad, Roxas," Axel snarled.

In a sudden bleeping of data another man had appeared, this time wrapped in red so that only one eye and his mouth were visible on his face.

"So it was you," Axel hissed, and Roxas blinked at the complete and utter look of blazing fury – no pun intended – in the emerald eyes. The redhead swung his chakrams up and flung them hard at the red-clad one, but they merely bounced off.

"Roxas," the red-clad man said, turning to the aforementioned boy. "This man speaks nonsense."

"Roxas, don't let him deceive you!"

"Roxas!"

"Roxas!"

The sounds of his name echoed in Roxas' mind, cacophonic and seeming to cause the air to swirl around him, and he cradled his head in his hands. "Hayner! Pence! Olette!" he screamed at last.

A burst of white light greeted his words and when it cleared, the audience was cheering for him again like nothing had happened. The black mage swayed and fell to the floor.

"What just happened?" the announcer blared.

That's what I'd like to know, Roxas thought dryly.

Vivi got to his feet and walked off the platform just as Hayner and the others ran up to greet their friend. Roxas stood there, feeling like a loser for not accepting their congratulations, as the announcer cried, "Ladies and gentlemen: Roxas – our new top Struggler!" The crowd screamed louder at that.

"Roxas?" Hayner asked, waving his hand in front of his friend's face.

"Setzerrrrr!" the fan-girls squealed as the gray-haired man walked onto the platform, giving a few more casual waves.

In the Back Alley of Twilight Town, where Axel had warped in the brief distraction provided by the flash of light, the aforementioned man sighed. "So, Xemnas was right. He really doesn't remember…"

"Well, yeah," came another voice suddenly, and Axel whirled around, chakrams at the ready just in case. Footsteps approached out of the entrance to the Sandlot, and within moments another dark-garbed figure had stepped up to stand in front of Axel. "In case you haven't noticed, that was kind of the point with the whole 'kidnap him and put him in a virtual world' thing."

The pale green eyes narrowed. "I see you're DiZ's lapdog, as usual."

Char let out a sound that was half-growl, half-sigh, and glared indignantly at Axel. "I'm no one's lapdog. And even if I was, I'm nothing compared to you – Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames, the traitor of the Organization."

In response, the spiky-haired man turned away and made his chakrams vanish so he could cross his arms across his chest. "Traitor, yeah, but not without a cause."

Char raised one eyebrow. "A traitor with a half-baked cause is still a traitor."

Without turning around, Axel chuckled bitterly. "When you're dedicated to what you do, it doesn't really matter, now does it?"

"Heh. You would know."

One black-gloved hand lifted up in front of Axel, and a dark portal was conjured, where it proceeded to swirl and hover in midair for its master. He turned his head slightly so he could speak to Char properly. "Just remember – when you've put Roxas and Sora back together," he smirked to himself at his choice of words, "I may or may not decide to give up on my 'foolish little venture'. Got it memorized?"

Without another word, he stepped forward and the darkness swallowed him up in a myriad of waving black tendrils. Char rolled her eyes and flipped her messy bangs back out of her eyes. "Arrogant little hedgehog," she muttered. "Don't know why we ever let him come over to hang out in the first place."

Yet there was a slight tremor in her words, a tremor of uncertainty of things to come. Remembering suddenly that she had a tournament to watch, she reached up and pulled the hood over her head before heading back the way she had come.

"Play fair now, you two," the producer said almost teasingly, handing Roxas and Setzer the Struggle weapons. "You're at the top of the bracket."

"There's only room for one up here," Setzer pointed out smugly.

"Well, may the best man win." The producer walked off the platform and Setzer turned to Roxas with an arrogant gleam in his eye.

"Hey, Rucksack," he greeted.

The blond's grip on his bat tightened in anger. If that guy had pronounced his name wrong on purpose… "That's Roxas."

Setzer ignored him. "How about you throw the match for me, save yourself a humiliating loss?"

Roxas cocked an eyebrow. "I don't think so."

Setzer shrugged, swinging his own Struggle club in a boastful, flourishing fashion and causing even more of his fan mob to swoon and collapse on the spot. "Fine then. Have it your way."

"Roxas, our underdog hero," the announcer blared, "versus Setzer, the Struggle champion! The winner of this match will be the true champ. That's right: bragging rights for a whole year!"

Roxas got into his battle stance. Setzer spoke now, his voice barely hearable among the cheering fans. "Whatever you think is right, you're wrong. And that's a big mistake."

"I'm not supposed to lose," Setzer groaned, picking himself up as the referee scribbled down their orb amounts on the board. Roxas straightened and looked around at the crowd, which was currently chanting his name. He gave a slight grin and waved.

The other walked offstage, the shadow of a smile on his face, and Roxas' friends ran onto the platform to congratulate him while the announcer handed him the championship belt and the trophy, yelling words of praise for the spiky-haired boy into the mike as he did so. Not far off, a certain dark-wearing girl grinned beneath the hood and started off toward Station Heights, disappearing into the mass of people going in that direction so as not to let Roxas catch sight of her.

Nevertheless, the flash of black among the sea of pale outfits caught the boy's eye at once. Though his gaze flicked over too late, barely seeing the tail of her dark coat, he recognized who it was at once – her tread was still uneven from falling in the tunnels. Roxas felt confusion rise within him; what was she doing back here?

"Hey, Roxas!" Hayner's voice jerked him back to face his friends, who were currently crowded around him. Pence was grinning and Hayner was clapping him on the back; Olette merely smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

Roxas shrugged, somewhat embarrassed at the looks of admiration on their faces. "I only did what I had to do."

"Yeah, but you were awesome," Pence retorted.

Later, the four friends sat at the ledge of the clock tower. Roxas, now wearing the championship belt, took out the trophy and stared at it for a moment before reaching over its "branches", to the colored orbs that it held. He tossed the yellow one to Olette, the red one to Hayner, and the green one to Pence, who caught it hastily before it could fall to the ground. The spiky-haired boy snapped off the blue one and held it up to the light, squinting a little as it reflected. The others followed his example.

"As promised," Roxas announced.

"One more treasure for us to share," Hayner grinned.

"I brought a present, too," Olette cut in, taking a box out of her pocket and opening it. Pence and Hayner made sounds of approval at seeing the sea-salt ice cream. Instinctively Roxas stood up to take one, then felt a jolt of alarm as his center of gravity shifted. He stumbled, and then cried out when he realized he was falling…

down…

down…

Images were running through the falling boy's mind: a red-haired girl in a school uniform, walking down to the beach while talking to a brown-haired girl who was wearing the same white shirt and skirt. The redhead suddenly spoke.

"Do you remember those boys who used to hang out with us?"

"Riku?"

"Yeah."

"I wonder whatever happened to him. I sure miss him."

"What about that other boy?"

"What other boy?"

"…Namine?"

"The other boy, who used to play with us on the island. His voice… it always used to be there, but now it's gone."

"Namine? What's… happening to me?"

"Who are you? And that's not my name. I'm Kairi."

"Kairi? I know you. You're that girl he likes."

"Who? Please, tell me his name."

"…I'm Roxas."

"Okay, Roxas, but can you tell me his name?"

Another voice seemed to speak through Roxas: a voice that was eerily similar to his own, and yet familiar, like a childhood memory one is trying to resurrect. "Geez, you don't remember my name? Thanks a lot, Kairi."The voice-that-was-not-Roxas' sighed in a mock-grudging manner. "Okay, I guess I can give you a hint: Starts with an 'S'!"

More images rushed through Roxas' mind; the red-haired girl and the brown-haired girl were standing at the coastline. The redhead placed a bottle in the water and watches the waves carry it away.

"What's that?" asked the brunette, tilting her head to the side.

"It's a letter I wrote yesterday, to the boy I can't remember. I said that no matter where he is, I'll find him. One day. And when I stopped writing, I suddenly remembered a promise we made. Something important… This letter is where it starts, I know it."

"Oh." After a moment of awkward silence, the brown-haired girl straightened. "I hope he gets it."

"He will." Her friend looked out at the ocean, her brow wrinkled as though she were in thought. "'Starts with an "S"'. Right, Sora?"

'Restoration at 79 percent.'

DiZ was actually up from the computer this time around, but still staring at the screens intently. Char and Ansem were nearby, tossing a blue orb to each other in a strange-looking game of catch.

"His progress is astounding," DiZ murmured, sounding a little surprised.

"Who?" Char asked, twisting her head to face the elder as she spoke to him. "Roxas… or –" She broke off abruptly and whirled to face Ansem. "Hey, that hit me in the stomach, you loser!" With an indignant growl she bent to pick up the orb and threw it back at him. The amber-eyed man chuckled and drew up one hand to catch it easily.

"Yeah, well, given the fact that Axel showed up, I think we've done pretty well regarding Sora," Char went on. As she spoke she barely managed to reach forward and catch the orb in time from where Ansem had tossed it back at her.

"If a certain meddling redhead I know hadn't made the situation worse…" DiZ looked pointedly back at said redhead, and Char scoffed, casually giving the blue orb an underhanded toss back to Ansem.

"Whatever. Axel doesn't know what he wants."

"I expect part of him wants his friend back," Ansem suddenly cut in, causing Char to look back at him in surprise. Normally he didn't voice his opinions on this sort of thing. "And part of him dreads what will happen if he tries to betray the Organization."

"Again?"

Ansem ignored Char's snide comment and continued. "So part of it is like you said – he doesn't know quite what he wants. He doesn't want to leave the Organization to retrieve Roxas, but he doesn't want us to merge Sora back with Roxas, either."

Char blinked for a moment, then sighed. "Y'know, that's an awful lot to feel for a guy who allegedly doesn't have a heart. And how did you know about Axel's friendship with Roxas, anyway?"

Ansem looked irritated toward her, even more so than usual. "We had to watch Roxas' memories of the Organization before they were fully erased, remember? It's not my fault if someone decided to get bored and go out for some ice cream while that was happening."

"I still asked Namine about it," Char grumbled. "She used to live with the Organization, too…"

"So what happened when Roxas fell off the tower?" asked Ansem, turning back to DiZ.

"Namine's encounter with Roxas put his heart in contact with Kairi's," DiZ explained. "And that, in turn, affected Sora. You see?"

Ansem gave a long nod of understanding.

"Namine… she's good at what she does," Char murmured.

"Yes," Ansem mused, something unidentifiable in his voice. Mood immediately changing, Char looked sharply at him, but before she could speak DiZ was talking again.

"She wasn't born like other Nobodies. She can interfere with the hearts and memories of Sora and those aligned with him."

"Geez, DiZ, voice what we already know, why don'tcha?" Char grumbled. Evidently what Ansem had done had put her in an even worse mood. She sighed and leaned back against the wall with her arms crossed.

"But whose Nobody is she?" Ansem asked. Char and DiZ exchanged a smug glance, not unlike the one a day ago when Ansem had introduced himself. The aforementioned man sighed. "You know something I don't. Don't you?"

"Maybe," Char answered, still smirking. DiZ shook his head disapprovingly at her and turned back to Ansem.

"Well, I suppose if you must know…"

Roxas awoke with a start. "I'm dreaming," he reminded himself, and turned to stare out the window. "But which parts… were the dream?"

Heh, at the beginning of the chapter Roxas is like "OSHIT D:". xP

I always love writing witty banter between Axel and my OCs. I find it really easy to get him into character, for some reason...

(waggles finger at Char) Short attention spans does not a smart person make.

I'll try to get everyone's chappie previews to them, I promise!